Catty goes Astronomical

Oh hi, I’m Catty and I’m back again. I was just cleaning up my flat of mice – yum! So, in my last book, I told you about my first trip to Sariska. Now, I’m telling you about my second trip to the same place. This trip didn’t last too long though. Just 2 days. But let me tell you, these two days were the best two days of my nine lives. Well, maybe not really, but you get the idea. I simply loved them. Read on and find out.

Yeah, another 250 km + journey by road. Again we went up the hill to reach our resort. But this time around, our resort was called Astroport. When we reached, we were offered a welcome drink and shown to our rooms. There were these two king sized beds. Dividing these two beds was a large mirror. The room was large and spacious. It was just purrrfect. Enough about the room. Now let’s move on.

A large group from the resort including mom, dad and me trekked up to a hill led by a guide who wanted us to enjoy a beautiful sunset from atop the hill. The hills were part of the Aravalis. On the way to the top, I made a new friend Whiskers. He knew a lot about stars, constellations and galaxies. He also told us that the galaxy Catdrofeda is some 6 light years away from Milky Way. The only thought I had was that any cat astronaut would have easily given up its paw for a galaxy that was called Milky Way. On our return to the resort, we slurped some tea and went to the garden. Time for the stars to shine. We were after all there for astronomy.

All of us took turns to look into a telescope. We saw the moon surface and its craters. We also saw Saturn and its rings. Many constellations were visible that night like Cassiopeia, Orion, Pegasus, Perseus double star cluster and the Andromeda galaxy. We listened to their stories while I tried sharpening my focus looking through the telescope admiring any star that was visible through it. We wrapped ourselves with layers of clothing and huddled together to witness a meteor shower. This astronomy ‘class’ was much more fun than any average kitty school.

Next morning, I got up, got ready and went to the garden where we had been the night before. We saw the sun today, although with protective gear on. A few kids then got busy with launching rockets. That interested me too so I went to get a closer look. The rocket was made out of a Cat Cola bottle and was filled with water and put on a pipe.

An exhaust was turned on and we had to pull the pipe. The air pressure combined with water propelled across the garden. The bad news – we got thoroughly wet. And in case you’ve forgotten, we are cats! We positively hate water. Yikes!!!

After a few more launches (and the continuous process of getting wet), I turned my attention to the ATV buggy. And wanted to ride it. I rode it all alone around the whole garden, crashing into some hedges and bushes. Sorry, plants.

Then all of us packed our bags and left. Oh, mom’s calling. Better leave you now. I’ve got more mice to mince. Bye!

The Hunt for a Haunt

Hi, I’m Catty Pirate. You might know me from my other book, My Thailand Adventures. Well, after a fairly long break, am back to regale you with my 2^nd travelogue. Here, I’m going to be telling you about Sariska, a place in the land of royals –Rajasthan.

My trip started like this: My parents called a colleague Mrs. & Mr. Bobby Sr. From our renowned cat society, Fur Paw towers, and a taxi came to get us. 

We got off at Cat Battle Gardens and waited for the Bobbies to arrive in their Cat Wagon. We were purring to start our 250 km + journey. When we reached, – zzzzzzz- sorry, the kitten Bobby, the only one that matched me in my size and stature, had gone off to sleep and not just once but he took three catnaps.

Yeah, so when we reached Sariska, we went up a hill to reach the resort. The safari where I could actually see larger members of my family was postponed much to our disappointment.

So we decided to go to Bhangarh instead.

The fort was supposedly haunted. My whiskers were at their ends waiting for some action. But duh…all that was just made up by the government to earn money. In Catland we live by far better morals. Anyway, the Bhangarh palace was crumbling and there was even a market where the movie Karan Arjun was shot. The market place was crumbling as well. How the cast and crew came out alive from there is still a mystery to me.

After this, we came back to the resort and bathed in whatever they called ‘hot’ water. The whole place is dependent on solar heaters and the day we reached was a cloudy day so you can imagine our plight. I think the resort wanted to kill us in the cold and then feed our carcasses to the tigers in the reserve. But are we smart, we totally saw through the plan and got the helpers to heat water for us in buckets. Beat that mister! Then after not such a long bath, we headed towards the high tea, Bobby junior entertained us to no end with his nonstop blabber and cat talk. We were a set of highly content group after a scrumptious dinner and a wonderful bonfire.

After a good night’s sleep, we got onto our paws and got ready. We went to a farm close to our resort. Wandering around, we came across some nilgais. All of us were trekking around and trying to find our way through thorny bushes when my dad suggested we climb the hill in front. We raced ahead, navigating our way through stones and pebbles and thorny bushes and cow dung too. Three of us reached the pinnacle – Bobby senior, my mom and drum rolls please – yours truly. We took about 20 minutes to get back to the resort. In the middle, Bobby junior spotted a spotted goat and wanted to ride it!!! His father helped him get on top of it and Bobby junior had a field day. Now it was time for the safari.

At about 2.40 pm, 3 Maruti gypsies came into the main gate of the resort. When we went to the gate, all of them were lined up waiting for us to climb in. Bobby and I jumped right into the 1^st one and called out to our parents. The vehicle took us to the tiger reserve gate and waited for a guide to join us. On entering the forest we saw Langurs, Sambhar Deer, Chitals and many different species of birds. We heard the frantic calls of deer. The guide informed us that the alarm call meant that a tiger was in the vicinity and that we should wait there. Bobby and I were about to see a large member of our family after all. But as luck would have it, no one appeared. Not just the tiger, we also decided to move on. Our jungle time was getting over as we had been inside for over 2 hours. We came back at around 6 and enjoyed yet another bonfire. I dozed off in front of the warm fire and my mom dragged me off to bed (despite my protests).

We left the resort after breakfast and went to a baoli (a step well). It was called Chaand Baoli. The guide told us that a lot of movies had been shot there and even the Dark Knight Rises was shot at the premises. Can’t imagine Batman in a place like that! I took dad’s camera and went clickety-clack. I stopped only when the senior fellow snatched the instrument away. I’m sure I redefined shutter speed that day. After Chaand Baoli, we went to a mandir. The photographer in me got excited yet again. There were gorgeous stone carvings lying at our feet. I also decided to go into the temple and pray for…no, I can’t tell you! Cat’s honour!!!

We took off once more and said bye to Rajasthan. Even in the car, we had a lot of fun engaging with Furi on Mrs. Bobby’s Paw Phone. They left mom, dad and me at exactly the same place where they had picked us up from. (Some things never change I guess) we reached home in another 20 minutes.

Another trip done and dusted with. I think I could start a business. Well, bye for now peeps. Though am sure we’ll meet really soon, or my name’s not Catty Pirate!!!

 

My Thailand Adventures

t was the last day at school and I was really excited. Tonight, I was going to Bangkok. I packed my bags and was ready to go to the airport. My joy knew no bounds when I reached the airport. My holidays had begun with a bang.

Thailand here I come!

In Thailand, lots of fun, lots of sun and sand and snorkeling, school of fish and coral reef were waiting for me. In short, a fun vacation was just about to happen. At the airport, we were ready to board another flight. But the flight was so short that it felt like the moment we sat on our seats, we had landed on another island!!!

Koh Samui, here I was.

Ready to splash in the waves and ready for some good time. It was an island, which was very close to Malaysia and Indonesia. I, Catty Pirate, had taken out my trunks and shades to enjoy the cool-cool waters and hot-hot sun in the small island of Samui.

I woke up early in the morning to get ready for a splashy day. We were off to Ang-Thong National Marine Park, where thousands of corals and fish awaited me. First, we took a van to the harbour. Then we went aboard a tiny ship, which had people from various countries. They were so many of them; it was difficult to count them.

The ship took us to a sandy beach from where we were transferred into kayaks and got paddles to reach another island shore. My mom was the driver and my father was the anchor, with me in the middle trying to help them steer through sea waters and caves.

B

C

A

Initially we couldn’t steer our kayaks properly and we were left behind, with all other kayaks heading in the right direction. We screamed for help and tried our level best to steer through. We succeeded. Then, we visited an amazing lagoon. Post an awesome lunch in the ship, we reached Angthong Marine Park where snorkeling awaited us.

I, Catty Pirate, am very afraid of animals, especially when they are larger than me. When I got to know that I could feed an elephant and a tiger with my own hands, I was surprised. How could this be happening? My papa bought a basket of bananas and gave it to me to feed it to an elephant. As soon as I had the basket in my hand, I saw a baby elephant run up to me with his trunk held high. I was not ready to feed the elephant, as I feared that the elephant would suck my hand in this trunk. Feeling afraid I took a banana from the basket and gave it scarily to the baby. It took it immediately and started chewing it. I was amazed. It was good fun.Then we moved to a zoo, where I was told that I could feed a TIGER!! Can this actually happen? By the time I could react, a little cub was already on my lap, while one uncle handed me a bottle of milk to feed the cub. My parents went crazy clicking to capture this moment. What a day it was!!!

We reached the Thai capital in the morning. First, we went to a hotel and got checked in. Then, we got ready and went to the biggest mall in all of Bangkok. After a wonderful 3 hours at a huge under water sea world where various species of fish were present, where I even saw sharks being fed by two very brave men, we went to my parents friends’ house for dinner.

I had loads of fun with Navya didi and Myra who I met for the very first time in my life.

The next day, we went to a jungle safari. There I and my mother and father saw shows. And I am not talking about TV shows. I am talking about stage shows! Shows which had trained and intelligent animals performing for us. Though I thought that the shows would be cruel to the animals, I noticed that the people hosting the shows were regularly feeding the animals in between their acting.

The orangutan show was the funniest and the dolphins show the most exciting. The sea lion show was also very entertaining. It was amazing to see the animals doing funny things on their own. I laughed and laughed and laughed at the orangutan show. At the end of the show, two small orangutans had to carry a boxer orangutan on a stretcher, but as the boxer lay down on the stretcher, the sheet fell down and the orangutan fell down and the other two just kept on going.

One day while in Bangkok, we visited an amusement park. From 4D horror science movies to giant houses with big shoes, from water splash rides to canoe rides, from sky coasters to snow town, I had a super fabulous time at Dreamworld. It was almost like a dream come true with so much excitement. We came back to the hotel tired but very happy.

On the second last day, we met Navya and Myra once again at their house. While our parents went out for dinner, the three of us had loads of fun back home. We played and talked and watched TV and played some more. I got gifts from Shriya aunty and my mamma gave Navya and Myra something they liked and appreciated.  It was a good ending to our holiday.

Saturday was all about packing and saying bye to Bangkok. After wishing our hotel staff goodbye, we left for the Suvarnabhoomi airport. After a long wait, we boarded our flight and I watched some TV on the aircraft and played some really nice games. I was all set to come back to Delhi and have more fun for the remainder of my vacation.
I had a really good time in Thailand.

But home sweet home is the best. I’m back and am enjoying my holidays playing cricket and badminton. I’m also looking forward to my dance workshop. My holidays have really been happy.

But school is the best, or my name isn’t Catty Pirate!